NIce Warrior!

lukewarm

Will spring never come?

Dive Dive Dive!

Why they have a scientist and chose to dig up something in the ice is less than clear, though.

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Why they have a scientist is less than clear. However, given that the scientist was there, the rest falls in place. It's made clear that the idea to go on the "hunting expedition" was the scientist's idea, and the Captain humored him. Which goes along with the Captain clearly being portrayed as less dogmatic in his position. The Captain and scientist appeared to be friends and in cahoots and in contrast to the more dogmatic officer (forgetting the name and rank).

Just a side, I wonder if they staged this episode in 1984 in the cold war era due to the current parallels with today's political nuclear threat of North Korea or Iran. Sometimes I wonder if they do such things to seem relevant to today's happenings.

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I thought it was 1983 and I was thinking cool, the Five Doctors should be airing soon for the 20th Anniversary. Plus, it's an even 30 years before the present.

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Nitpick: the captain has four stripes on his uniform, which means he is an O7 captain. However, my understading is that submarines usually have an officer with a lower rank for its captain, like a Commander or even a Lt. Commander. Or are things different in Russia (or were different in Soviet Russia)?

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In Soviet Russia, the sub commands you!

I'm sorry, that was bad.

I really liked it, I didn't like it more than the other episodes but I didn't hate them as much as seems to be the popular opinion.

And I did have a bit of an RTD flashback when the professor wanted the Doctor to kiss him.

Was I the only one who thought of the Scooby Doo episode with the caveman frozen in a block of ice?

For most of this season I've been too disappointed to even bother saying so. I was sure that by this seasons end I'd probably be saying my good-buys to the Doctor for good but Cold War has renewed my faith. Nice Warrior!

For me, what some people have said made CW boring/bad/etc. was what made it work. Just a simple Dr. Who story told in the classic style. The STORY was where the sparkle lie, not in the elaborate sets/special effects, hoards of aliens or cutesy choreography of the last episodes.

However, my understading is that submarines usually have an officer with a lower rank for its captain, like a Commander or even a Lt. Commander. Or are things different in Russia (or were different in Soviet Russia)?

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1. Things are undoubtedly different in Russia.
2. For the longest time American Ballistic Missile Subs were always commanded by a four-strip O-6 Captain. This change sometime in the late 90s I believe. So if that had been an American sub in the same time frame as this episode, it would have been quite appropriate for the CO of the boat to have four stripes on his sleeves.

For what it's worth, a Russian Naval officer with four stripes on his sleeves in 1983 would be called a "Captain 2nd Rank", equivalent to a US Navy Commander (O-5) with three sleeve stripes..

I wanted to vote Nice Warrior but I realized that was because Mars being the source planet made me happy and if that was all that tipped it out of lukewarm that was not enough.

I couldn't get over the Professor having his nice little cheering-Clara chat while sitting in an OPEN DOORWAY with his back to a room/corridor from which the enemy could easily come. No one sits with their back to an open doorway while fleeing for their life from an mysterious alien.

Wonderful episode! David Warner, Liam Cunningham, submarine adventure, the return of the Ice Warriors and a very wet Clara. Can't ask for much more than that.

Loved all of the small references to The Second Doctor and I hope there are more to come. While I didn't initially like the whole "escape from the armor" bit, it did grow on me and it's a nice update to the Ice Warriors. The only two things I didn't like about this episode was that it was a few minutes shorter than usual and there wasn't nearly enough David Warner. Maybe he was too busy being awesome villain to Tom Baker's The Fourth Doctor in the current season of Big Finish audios.

Did anyone take note when the Ice Warrior mentioned the "old times" and it seemed to put the Doctor almost off-kilter? It took me back to Lady Peinforte's conversation with the Doctor in the 25th anniversary story Silver Nemesis, which I think is being added to the iPlayer catalogue today. In that story Peinforte referred to the "Old Time" on Gallifrey, a time of chaos, and raised what we now think of as the First Question. Could be nothing, of course.

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Actually, I thought more along the lines of Big Finish's The Judgement of Isskar.

During the course of the adventure, The Fifth Doctor accidentally causes the collapse of the peaceful Ice Warrior civilization. I couldn't help but think The Doctor thought of that moment during that scene even though I'm sure that wasn't Mark Gatiss' intention.

I can actually nitpick the sets and militaria to quite a degree this week, though - I've been aboard a cold war era former Soviet sub, and they're nothing like that bloody spacious (I know, a production necessity), nor do they have smooth floors, refer to the control room as the bridge, nor have FN Browning Hi-Powers as the crew's sidearms. Though it's nice to see the AKs (or more likely Norinco copies) actually used in the correct period, rather than the year five billion for a change...

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All those nitpicks aside (all valid but, in the end, don't really matter), the only thing that bothered me was when Captain Zhukov called the bulkheads "a wall." As a sailor, I couldn't help but be bugged by that.

Wonderful episode! David Warner, Liam Cunningham, submarine adventure, the return of the Ice Warriors and a very wet Clara. Can't ask for much more than that.

Loved all of the small references to The Second Doctor and I hope there are more to come. While I didn't initially like the whole "escape from the armor" bit, it did grow on me and it's a nice update to the Ice Warriors. The only two things I didn't like about this episode was that it was a few minutes shorter than usual and there wasn't nearly enough David Warner. Maybe he was too busy being awesome villain to Tom Baker's The Fourth Doctor in the current season of Big Finish audios.

Did anyone take note when the Ice Warrior mentioned the "old times" and it seemed to put the Doctor almost off-kilter? It took me back to Lady Peinforte's conversation with the Doctor in the 25th anniversary story Silver Nemesis, which I think is being added to the iPlayer catalogue today. In that story Peinforte referred to the "Old Time" on Gallifrey, a time of chaos, and raised what we now think of as the First Question. Could be nothing, of course.

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Actually, I thought more along the lines of Big Finish's The Judgement of Isskar.

During the course of the adventure, The Fifth Doctor accidentally causes the collapse of the peaceful Ice Warrior civilization. I couldn't help but think The Doctor thought of that moment during that scene even though I'm sure that wasn't Mark Gatiss' intention.

I can actually nitpick the sets and militaria to quite a degree this week, though - I've been aboard a cold war era former Soviet sub, and they're nothing like that bloody spacious (I know, a production necessity), nor do they have smooth floors, refer to the control room as the bridge, nor have FN Browning Hi-Powers as the crew's sidearms. Though it's nice to see the AKs (or more likely Norinco copies) actually used in the correct period, rather than the year five billion for a change...

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All those nitpicks aside (all valid but, in the end, don't really matter), the only thing that bothered me was when Captain Zhukov called the bulkheads "a wall." As a sailor, I couldn't help but be bugged by that.

Best Doctor Who Gatiss script? Absolutely. Best Gatiss script period? No. I would say either Poirot's "Hallowe'en Party" or Sherlock's "The Great Game" were better, although they're both adaptations.

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Sorry I did mean his best Who script, it's always annoyed me somewhat that he's written so many sub par Who eps when I know he can write good stuff!

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Very true. He seems to have the same problem as Chris Chibnall who has written some great non-Doctor Who scripts (even with Torchwood) but his Doctor Who scripts haven't been the best (although his latest efforts, "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship" and "The Power of Three" were fairly good).